Dive Brief:
- WPP on April 3 acquired data collaboration platform InfoSum, enhancing the network’s AI-powered data intelligence and consumer identity capabilities, the company said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- InfoSum will become a part of GroupM, the holding company’s media investment group, and will be integrated into its proprietary WPP Open platform. Lauren Wetzel will remain CEO of InfoSum and will also take on the additional role of chief solutions officer within GroupM.
- The deal reunites GroupM CEO Brian Lesser, who joined GroupM as global CEO last year, with a company he once led. Lesser was CEO of InfoSum from 2020 to 2024.
Dive Insight:
WPP is touting its latest acquisition as a way for clients to move away from identity-based solutions “that depend on decades-old, deteriorating databases weakened by cookie deprecation, platform fragmentation and splintering audience match rates,” per the press release.
With InfoSum’s clean-room technology in-house within WPP, clients will be able to combine their first-party data with data signals from billions of touchpoints to generate new marketing intelligence that can build, train and deploy custom AI models for quickly generating insights and optimizing campaigns. InfoSum’s network includes access to media channels such as Channel 4, DirecTV, Netflix and Samsung Ads, as well as global retail networks and data partners including TransUnion, Experian and Dynata.
“Directly integrating InfoSum’s global data network and technology infrastructure will allow our clients to create even more value from their first-party data and enable us to train client AI models against the most data, from the most places, at unprecedented scale and speed,” Lesser said in the release. “Our approach recognizes the importance of identity data to today’s marketing strategies while allowing us to take advantage of the limitless opportunities for growth we can create by moving beyond them.”
WPP’s deal comes on the heels of Publicis’ recent acquisition of identity solutions firm Lotame. Lotame will be combined with Publicis’ existing data-driven marketing unit Epsilon, leading the holding company to reach nearly 4 billion unique profiles globally, or about 91% of internet-connected consumers, according to the company.
